We've always loved pearls! Since the beginning of civilization, pearls with their warm inner glow, shimmering iridescence and color variation, have been one of the highly prized and sought after gems. The ancients attached magical properties to these beautiful gems from the sea because of their rarity and seductive beauty.
For centuries pearls have grabbed attention from royalty, adventurers and conquerors. During the Roman Empire only aristocracy was allowed to wear pearls. Sometimes we have to realize on how lucky we are that nowadays we can enjoy and afford the pleasure of wearing pearls, without dealing with restrictive traditions of the past. After all wearing pearls make us women feel special, beautiful and a bit royal!

To prepare the lovely strand of pearls that we love so much to wear, will take a long time: from the oysters to the people that fishes and gather them during the harvest, the ones that clean and open thousands of oysters, then the people that skillfully select the beautiful pearls, measure their size, luster, and color. It takes thousands of oysters and thousands of hours in selecting just the right strand of pearls that will happily end in our jewelry boxes, on us to adorn and passed down to our children.

Basic Pearl Groups:

• Cultured Pearls: Fine quality saltwater pearls from the Akoya Oyster (Pinctada Fucata) mainly cultured in cold ocean waters in Japan. These pearls are round and their natural colors normally range from white to cream, with light pink, green or silver overtones. Only 30 to 35% of the oysters will produce a pearl and only a small fraction will be fine quality pearls. That is why Cultured Pearls are costlier than Freshwater Pearls. Cultured pearls will always be a classic in every woman's wardrobe.
  
• Freshwater Pearls: Lovely, less expensive pearls that are mainly grown in China in mussels in rivers, lakes and ponds. They tend to be more irregular in shape and more varied in color than saltwater pearls. The mussels or oysters can produce up to 12-20 pearls in each shell.
  
• South Sea Pearls: Large, fine quality White pearls cultured mainly in Australia in the large Pinctada Maxima (silver lipped oyster). South Sea Pearls usually start at 10mm in size. Pearls over 15mm are considered very large and very rare. They come in different shapes: from baroque to button to drop to round. Natural color Golden South Sea pearls (Pinctada Maxima - golden lipped oyster) are cultured mainly in Indonesia. South Sea Pearls are very beautiful and they make incredibly appealing jewelry.
  
• Tahitian Pearls: Large, fine quality natural black color pearls cultured mainly in French Polynesia or Cook Islands in the large Pinctada Margaritifera (black lipped oyster). Tahitian Pearls usually start at about 9mm in size. Pearls over 14-15mm are consider very large and very rare. They come in different shapes: from baroque to button to drop to round. The rounder, the costlier. Tahitian pearls are rarer as well since only a small number of oyster will survive to produce a round fine pearl. They come in a very attractive variety of different colors from black to green to gray to bronze to light silver. Matching black Tahitian pearls is a very difficult task, since very few are alike.
• All South Sea and Tahitian pearl strands, even in the high five figure price range, still will have a few minor imperfections detectable with the naked eye. Pearls are absolutely stunning, creating valuable and gorgeous jewelry!
  

Pearls have unique characteristics which determine their rarity and value:

• Luster: Is the shine on the surface of the pearl that reflects light. Luster is determined by the thickness of the nacre and is greater if the pearl is left underwater for a longer period of time.
  
• Color: The natural color of pearls varies greatly depending on the specie of the oysters. Black Tahitian pearl natural color varies greatly from black to green to eggplant to dark and light silver. South Sea pearls color varies from white to light silver to champagne-deep golden. Akoya pearl color is mainly white with overtones going to cream-golden, to pinkish, to blue-gray/silver. Freshwater pearls also come in an array of different colors.
• Shape: Roundness is very important for Akoya pearls, and perfectly round South Sea and Tahitian are very rare. The roundness depends on how long a pearl is left in the oyster underwater because of water friction that can work it into different shapes. Pear, button, baroque and circle pearls make very attractive jewelry as well. Baroque pearls are also sought after because of their unique shapes and quirky character. Usually, the rounder, the costlier.
• Size: The larger the pearls the rarer and more valuable they became. Price increases drastically as the size increases. Advice: in order to reduce the price, reduce the size.
• Pearl Surface: Small imperfections as nicks or scratches (we call them beauty marks!) can help to identify a real pearl from an imitation. They are caused by sand particles that find their way inside the oyster when the pearl is forming. Only few pearls are really close to perfection. Slight surface blemishes are not so important because pearl jewelry when worn, is seeing at arm length and the few tiny marks tend to disappear, while the glowing luster and satiny color will prevail and flatter a lady's complexion.

• Pearl Grading: We proudly assure you that all our pearls are of Excellent quality, with high luster, clean surface and thick nacre. Many websites apply pearl grading to their products with terminology such as A, B, C - generally used for South Sea & Tahitian pearls - or A, AA, AAA generally used for Japanese Akoyas Cultured pearls sometimes in an inaccurate manner. They often use standard pearl pictures which are not depicting the real product for sale. We always use our own pictures for all our products!

  The Gemological Institute of America-GIA uses a different, more accurate grading criteria such as Excellent, Good, Fair and Poor, while evaluating at the same time factors such as type, shape, size, luster and nacre thickness. We offer a Free Certificate of Appraisal done by our GIA Graduate for all our South Sea-Tahitian strands. A charge of $25 will be applied for appraisal of smaller items such as earrings and pendants upon request. When you purchase from us, you will receive the items you see in the pictures as most of our products are beautifully one of a kind!